This year the words of the apostle John (from my recent study of his letters) dominate my ponderings of our annual remembrance of the coming of Jesus Christ as a human baby. Last Sunday, I examined him as Life. Today, we look at LIGHT.

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Advent 2: JESUS IS LIGHT

Light is the opposite of darkness. Light symbolizes all that is good. Darkness all that is evil. Our world can look pretty dark these days due to wars, dictators, corrupt government, cults, addictions, hatred, and fear-mongering. Advent invites us to first acknowledge darkness that we might realize how desperately we need light.

In the Christmas story, light appears twice. Mary of Nazareth marvels at a prophecy spoken over her son calling him a “light for revelation to the Gentiles” (Lk 2:32). And God puts a star in the night sky to point the way for the Magi to find Jesus’s birth place (Mt 2:9).

The apostle John tells us in the opening verses of his first letter that “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all” (1:5). But he wants us to also know that God sent his light to us in the person of his son, Jesus.

I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true and realized in Christ and in you, because the darkness is clearing away and the true Light [the revelation of God in Christ] is already shining.

1 John 2:8 AMP (emphasis mine)

That Jesus is light is even more clear in John’s gospel where Jesus calls himself “the light of the world” (Jn 8:12) that shines in darkness.  

Jesus was born in Bethlehem to overcome darkness.

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:4–5

Life in Bethlehem was pretty dark with oppressive Roman reign, heavy taxation, a jealous evil king who slaughtered baby boys to eliminate potential usurpers, and legalistic religious leaders. Jesus overcame this darkness—not with strength, political power, wealth, or equal measures of evil—but with light (3 Jn 1:11).

When we believe, we are brought from darkness into light.

“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness … Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 12:46 (8:12)

When we believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah come to save the world (1 Jn 2:2), he brings us out of darkness into his light by purifying us from all sin (1 Jn 1:7).

Walking in the light determines the way we live.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.

1 John 1:7, 1 Jn 2:9–10

Now that we walk in the light, loving community characterizes our lives. Nothing shines brighter in dark times than believers who lay down their lives for each other (1 Jn 3:16), who share material possessions with those in need (1 Jn 3:17), and who intentionally associate with one another.

According to JoAnn Hummel, “Light shines its brightest in the dark. Evil times offer unique opportunities to shine your light. Don’t miss them.”

Today, we marvel that the One who is LIGHT came to earth to show us how to walk in his light.

How will you walk in the light today?

PRAYER

As you anticipate the coming of the One who are true LIGHT, may his light purify us so we can live with one another in authentic love and fellowship.

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For further meditation:

Consider these verses. How do they expand your understanding of walking in the light?

• For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. (Eph 5:8–11)
• let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Mat 5:16)
• But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. (Jn 3:21)
• But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Pet 2:9)
• For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’” (Acts 13:47)